


A Little Comfort at the End of the World

by viceroy



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Batman and Robin Eternal (Comics), Midnighter (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Midnighter is the best gay older brother, Talking, fraternal bonding, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-28
Updated: 2016-03-28
Packaged: 2018-05-29 17:35:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6385813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/viceroy/pseuds/viceroy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cullen and Midnighter bond while the Bat Family takes on Mother's forces.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Little Comfort at the End of the World

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally meant to be porn but turned into this sappy dreck. Some anons urged me to post it regardless, so here we are. Hope you guys enjoy.

Since his sister finally came out with the extent of her crazy, Cullen’s become somewhat deadened to the appearance of vigilantes and technology that would make STAR Labs hard. It’s the new background noise to his life if he’s being honest with himself. Waking up to some masked weirdo or playing on a computer ten years ahead of its time has become less surprising than finding out there’s a sub in his math class. Whether or not this change of events means Cullen’s accepted his sister’s weird lifestyle or he’s joined in on her crazy isn’t something he really wants to spend too much time thinking about.

Tonight has to top anything else he’s experienced in the year so far that Harper’s taken to calling herself Bluebird. Less than an hour ago he and Stephanie were battening down the hatches for the apocalypse and now?

“There’s a group of kids coming on your left at the next intersection, Catwoman. I think one of them has a gun,” Cullen states as he looks at the bank of holographic projections in front of him.

_”You think or you know, kid?”_

“It’s...I can’t really…” Cullen looks closer and Catwoman actually freezes on the display.

_”Come on, focus!”_

Cullen shakes his head at the admonishment and manipulates the camera until- “It’s definitely a gun. Another one has a shotgun. Watch out for them.”

Catwoman turns to the camera she’s on and gives a thumb up before darting into a nearby garden. _“Thanks for the heads up.”_

“No problem. Hey, you’re about one hundred feet before you hit the scrambled zone. If you cut through the house you’re at right now and high tail it across the street in the next…,” Cullen looks at the satellite feed of the kids, “…forty seconds, I’d give you, you should be clear until you make it there.”

_”Gotcha,”_ she responds and he watches as she darts through the area with expert ease. _“I’m-hh! I’m going to go quiet now, so unless something pops up between now and then, maintain radio silence.”_

“Understood,” Cullen says, panning back to her soon-to-be assailants.

_”And kid?”_ She pauses and Cullen waits, curious. _”You did good for your first day doing this. I’d have you in my ring any day. Going dark now.”_

Cullen lets out a breath as he sees her vault over the back yard and rush through the next street unnoticed and he lets out a sigh of relief. Things are going great, all things considered. Next to him, Midnighter types furiously, keeping sentinel on their other charges. With his own now out of the loop, he looks over surreptitiously. The man has a small smile on his face as he works. Cullen would find it endearing if that wasn’t the same smile he’d seen cross his face when Robin knocked the teeth out of a cop that tried to subdue him.

He shakes his head and returns his attention to the monitor before him, tracking Catwoman’s movements until suddenly he runs out of CCTVs to track her with. “Catwoman’s inside the zone,” he tells Midnighter when it happens.

Midnighter grunts his acknowledgement. “And I just lost Robin, Helena, and Batgirl.” He presses a few buttons and most of the screens go dark. “Alright, Dickie. We’re down to just you and Red Robin now. Everyone else is outside of radio contact.”

_“Quicker than I thought,”_ he responds carefully. _“Remember, keep an eye on everything even when we go. We don’t know what exactly Mother’s doing yet.”_

“Yeah, yeah. Eyes peeled, no stone unturned, call someone else in if I want wanton violence. Really, Dickie, you’re starting to sound like a broken record,” he says as he leans back into his chair. Cullen pulls up new screens and starts scanning the chaos in them. Kids everywhere, attacking any adult they see. The world’s on fire, and his sister’s at the heart of it all, why didn’t they-

“How’s Cullen doing?” Dick’s voice cuts in and Cullen snaps himself back into the now.

“A lot better than most kids his age, I can tell you that. Probably better than a lot of adults, too, I’d wager.” Midnighter looks over at him, his gaze a mixture of amused and questioning and Cullen shrugs. “By the way, you should keep an eye on him. He’s got a really impressive eye for strategy.”

_“No.”_

Midnighter scoffs. “I’m not going to teach him how to kill, just-“

“No, _M. Are you alright, Cullen?”_ he asks. Cullen looks up, surprised and nodding before he remembers Dick can’t see him.

“Um. Yeah. I’m doing good right now, don’t worry about me,” he tells him, tripping over his own words.

_”You’ve been a huge help tonight, Cullen. We owe you big time right now,”_ Dick replies and Cullen can’t help but smirk.

“Well, if you guys owe me, then I guess it’s not presumptuous to ask if I can meet Tim Wayne when this is all done and over with?” Red Robin nearly falls midflight as both Midnighter and Dick start laughing uncontrollably. “What? He’s cute.”

_”Oh, Jeeze. That. Is. Definitely something I’ll be making sure happens, Cullen,”_ Dick responds with a cackle. _”I’m sure Tim would love to meet someone who admires him.”_

_”We have a mission, guys,”_ Red Robin admonishes as he swoops low to save a woman from nearly being hanged.

“Oh, lighten up, Red,” Midnighter presses, still trying to contain his laugh. “I’m sure _Tim_ will be flattered.” By the end of it he can’t contain his laughter anymore and Cullen joins in just in time to hear Red Robin’s sullen ‘going dark’. The laughter dies down and Midnighter nudges him slightly, a show of camaraderie that Cullen meekly returns.

“Alright, Dick, you’re the last one on comms,” Cullen finally chimes in as he loses the feed on Tim, playing around with each monitor until each of the twelve cities is on a continuous loop of satellite and CCTV feeds, looking for anything remarkable in the unbridled chaos playing out before him.

_”Roger that,”_ he responds in kind. _”M, is there anything out there I should be worried about?”_

“You mean besides the death cult surrounding a geriatric megalomaniac?” Midnighter asks mockingly. “Polar bears. I hear they enjoy the taste of human flesh.”

_”Bears don’t eat people.”_

“I’ve had several experiences that would prove otherwise,” Midnighter says as Cullen chokes on a surprised laugh.

_”Flirt on your own time,”_ Dick’s clipped voice comes through. _”Besides, there are kids around.”_

“This _is_ my own time,” Midnighter counters. “You’re the one that asked me for help this time. Again, I might add. Besides, this kid’s what, seventeen?” He looks at Cullen, who nods a confirmation. “Seventeen. He’s legal. And I doubt that’s the worst thing he’s ever heard growing up in Gotham.”

_”I’d still rather not have you corrupt-“_

Cullen frowns. “Dick? You cut out.” A moment later and the arctic satellite image breaks up into nothing but artifacts and video tearing before giving up the ghost entirely with a neutral SIGNAL LOST blinking on the screen.

“And now it’s just you and me, kid.” Midnighter sighs and rubs his eyes for a moment. “Now here comes the boring part.” The two lapse into a tense sort of silence, both of them clicking through feeds and updating other super teams the world over through an anonymous proxy. The silence stretches and Midnighter shifts in his seat before looking seriously over at his younger charge. “It’s okay to tell me if I’m making you uncomfortable. I know I’m not the best conversational partner.”

“You’re not,” Cullen insists. “You’re not the problem at all, really. In fact I think you’re about the coolest guy I’ve ever met.”

“You think I’m cool?” Midnighter asks, his mouth quirking into a weird kind of smile. Not the predatory or indulgent one Cullen’s seen him wear practically all night, but a different sort. Almost like the man is shy, which. Weird.

“Well, yeah,” Cullen tells him, his own voice lowering with a growing sense of self-awareness. “It’s like nothing phases you. You look at this stuff,” he motions to the chaos on the monitors, “and you seem to be taking it in like it’s nothing.”

“That’s not something you should admire,” Midnighter says darkly and Cullen shakes his head.

“Not the point. Like, everyone gave you crap tonight, and it just rolled off you. You don’t care what people think. And you have all these weapons and cool tech, and I’m pretty sure you’re a superhero-“ Midnighter snorts “-and…it’s just cool. That you know what you’re doing. That you’re in charge of your life like you are, and you could totally help out there if you wanted, and” He looks down, his cheeks reddening some. “I’m just me.”

The pause this time is heavy and even without looking Cullen can tell that Midnighter’s stopped watching the progress on the monitors. “What’s wrong with being you, kid? Everything I’ve seen tonight is amazing, in my opinion. Most adults couldn’t do what you’re doing.”

“Yeah, but I’m no- no Red Hood, or Robin, or any of those guys. I’m not even Bluebird. I’m just some kid from Gotham who gets his shit wrecked because he’s a fag. My sister was the one who kept bailing me out, how sad is that?” The question is rhetorical, and before Midnighter can respond, he continues. “I’m okay with that, though. I really am.” He sighs and closes his eyes. “Or I thought I was. Then Harper went off the deep end and came out _fantastic_. Now she’s trying to save everyone, and then Steph comes in out of nowhere and she’s another vigilante, and they’re being trained by Red Robin and the guy who used to be _Nightwing_ back from the dead.”

He takes a breath and Midnighter whistles lowly. “That…definitely is something.”

“I used to try to avoid it, you know?” Cullen continues, and though Midnighter nods he doubts the other man does. “But it started being everything. Everyone I actually know is some kind of vigilante. Even you. I’m the least interesting person in my life and I liked it that way until.“ He takes a small, stuttering breath and gestures at the bank of images before them. “Until tonight. My sister’s out there, M. My only family left that actually cares about me. I should be out there, helping out, _bringing her back!_ ” The tears are flowing freely now, but Cullen doesn’t care, too worked up in his own frustration. “But I’m stuck here looking at stupid _monitors_ because I can’t even-“

The rest of Cullen’s words are interrupted as he’s suddenly and unceremoniously swept from his chair and settled into an unexpectedly warm surface. He blinks and opens his eyes, only to find his head pressed into the cotton-covered shoulder of his newest acquaintance. For a moment he’s startled but he begins hearing the deep tones of the vigilante murmuring into the top of his head. He can’t quite make out what the other’s saying but it’s enough that the floodgates open. Cullen begins crying in earnest, howling his rage and sorrow at his own weakness, at his failure to protect his sister, at the world dying around them all while he sits in one of the safest places on the planet. It could be minutes, or even hours before Cullen finishes crying, but at the end of it, he feels…not better, but less. The sting isn’t so bad and he doesn’t have anything left in him to even care that he just bawled his whole life story into the shoulder of someone who’s essentially a stranger.

When he’s done, he gently looks up at his companion and Midnighter smiles mildly. It really is a beautiful kind of thing. “Better?” he asks, and Cullen shrugs. “Didn’t think so. But it doesn’t feel like you’re about to explode anymore, right?” Cullen nods and Midnighter’s customary smirk returns, only with a little less edge to it. “Good, because all this stuff is more expensive than even I am and I’d hate to have to go chasing down a new batch of mad scientists to replace it. The God Garden doesn’t come cheap, you know.”

Cullen manages a small huff of laughter, and wipes at his cheek, embarrassed now but comfortable. “I…thanks. I guess I needed that, M.”

Midnighter hums his acknowledgement, his hand still carding through Cullen’s hair absently. Cullen finds he doesn’t mind that much, the gentle pull against his scalp a comfort for him. He leans back into the position the other had him in before, his arms hanging loosely around his shoulders. “We all do, sometimes. There’s nothing wrong with it. Nothing wrong with admitting it, either.”

Cullen nods, past the need to talk and content to just soak in the comfort of the other man. Long minutes pass, and the stress of the past few days ebb from Cullen’s body, the worry still there but not as urgent. Finally he pulls back from Midnighter and kisses him lightly on the cheek before returning to his own chair. “And you’re not so bad at reassuring people as you think you are, M.”

Midnighter barks out a laugh and shakes his head. “If you say so, kid. And if you ever need anything, or if you just want someone to shoot the shit that you feel comfortable talking to, just give me your number after this. I’m always just one call away.” He smirks. “Or if you ever want to take me up on that training offer. Dick doesn’t need to know.”


End file.
